Gavin Ough's Blog
November 22, 2014
Stuff I'm Doing Right Now
At the moment I'm working through the novel I've been writing for years.
Last War of the Necromancers is a book I came up with ages ago and has gone through quite a few changes since I came up with it. It features a genetically enhanced human called Dumar whose soul is claimed by a necromancer, Grethron and put into the body of another. Grethron wants Dumar to help him kill his own brother.
With a complex set of characters and written from Dumar's point of view, Last War of the Necromancers will be my first self published book coming in 2015.
Last War of the Necromancers is a book I came up with ages ago and has gone through quite a few changes since I came up with it. It features a genetically enhanced human called Dumar whose soul is claimed by a necromancer, Grethron and put into the body of another. Grethron wants Dumar to help him kill his own brother.
With a complex set of characters and written from Dumar's point of view, Last War of the Necromancers will be my first self published book coming in 2015.
August 16, 2014
Is this ok?
I'm not really up to ate with this kind of thing and (I hope you're sitting down to read this) I don't have a Facebook account. I do realise this is, in the eyes of some, a kind of blasphemy. But wait until you discover I don't own a mobile phone either!
I feel the shame, I'm sorry.
These significant confessions are all part of the lead up to another confession, I don't really know what to put here. I've looked at other blogs and most of them are either incomprehensible to me or so jammed full of ads there's nothing to be seen.
So here's my first ever blog post, I hope you like it.
As a child of the 70's, growing up in the 80's I can recall a gentler time before we were all constantly bombarded with pornography. Sir Clive Sinclair revolutionised home computing with the ZX81 a machine with the power to display up to two colours on screen at the same time.
This was a time when a mobile was either a wooden porta-cabin you had school lessons in or something you hung over a baby's crib for them to look at while they dribbled away the hours, rather than a telecommunications device.
We had three (yes 3) channels on our TV set as I was growing up. It was a black and white portable, although the thing had such a mass to it you needed to be Jeff Capes to even move it. In order to change channel from BBC1, BBC2 or ITV you actually had to get up from your seat and press a button which made a final sounding 'clack' like the snapping of a femur. Eventually Channel 4 came along and introduced us to Countdown and casual swearing.
Money back then was different too. We had something called a Pound Note, which you could buy an almost unlimited supply of anything with. We had a halfpence piece, no twenty pence and all the other coins were visible with the naked eye, unlike now. You could do some serious damage with a 10p coin back in my youth, they were huge, about the size of an Olympic medal I think and don't even get me started on the 50p.
There was a phenomenon back then known as the penny sweet. You could actually get a penny sweet and it DID cost just 1p. The shopkeeper would watch as you made your selection, picking things up with your BARE hands (no scoops or anything!), before tipping the bag or small tray out and counting the sweets and handling them with HIS bare hands.
Many roads had a bright red, metal box situated on them. Like a small greenhouse, they got insanely hot in summer and as the doors weighed about a ton, small children were often caught inside and passed out.
These 'Phone Boxes' as they were called actually had a telephone inside. I recall the shock I felt when the newer phones were installed in the boxes and there was no 1p slot in them! The classic British phone box was also multi-functional as it they often doubled as a toilet, place to hang out in the rain and somewhere to keep the weird kids off the estate. We pushed them inside and tied it shut with rope. The phone box nearest to me had a peculiar scent to it which I could not identify for years until I grew up and understood it was the smell of old sex.
We had numerous outlets for entertainment back in the day too, the council estate I lived on had areas of grass which you were banned from playing ball games on although it was more than acceptable for all the dogs in the area to deposit their excrement all over the place. As we weren't allowed to play in the dog mess we would often gather at a play park on the edge of our civilisation.
Play parks today are generally safe places for parents to take their children for a good bit of fun and exercise. Not in my day, there was a standard slide in parks back then, it was about ten feet high and open at the top so there was a very real possibility you could fall off and crack open your skull like a ripe melon hit with a cricket bat. Especially as the floor was either concrete or the marginally softer tarmac. None of this rubbery stuff you get today - we woz tuff.
There was another form of entertainment we had, often next to the play park, which was the no longer seen phenomenon of the abandoned car. I often stood, transfixed in awe, as the older kids would jump repeatedly on the bonnet, windscreen and roof of a car which somebody had no further use for so dropped it in an area they knew kids would destroy it completely. Don't get the wrong idea - these weren't stolen cars, nor had they been used in the commission of a crime - dodgy blokes just dumped them. Everywhere. It was our duty as kids to play in and on them before someone burned them out. I clearly recall a group of older boys stuffing one poor soul inside a discarded Austin Maxi and making sure he couldn't get out while the leader crushed the roof down on his head. Logic now tells me the kid inside was in very little danger but my ten year old imagination had them killing him inside that babyshit brown car.
Babyshit brown is another feature we have lost since the 80's. Many automotive manufacturers decided this was an excellent choice of colour for the cars they created, presumably derived from the designer's child's nappy. Some cars came in a meconium green hue which has also died out.
So, as a beginning, how did I do?
I feel the shame, I'm sorry.
These significant confessions are all part of the lead up to another confession, I don't really know what to put here. I've looked at other blogs and most of them are either incomprehensible to me or so jammed full of ads there's nothing to be seen.
So here's my first ever blog post, I hope you like it.
As a child of the 70's, growing up in the 80's I can recall a gentler time before we were all constantly bombarded with pornography. Sir Clive Sinclair revolutionised home computing with the ZX81 a machine with the power to display up to two colours on screen at the same time.
This was a time when a mobile was either a wooden porta-cabin you had school lessons in or something you hung over a baby's crib for them to look at while they dribbled away the hours, rather than a telecommunications device.
We had three (yes 3) channels on our TV set as I was growing up. It was a black and white portable, although the thing had such a mass to it you needed to be Jeff Capes to even move it. In order to change channel from BBC1, BBC2 or ITV you actually had to get up from your seat and press a button which made a final sounding 'clack' like the snapping of a femur. Eventually Channel 4 came along and introduced us to Countdown and casual swearing.
Money back then was different too. We had something called a Pound Note, which you could buy an almost unlimited supply of anything with. We had a halfpence piece, no twenty pence and all the other coins were visible with the naked eye, unlike now. You could do some serious damage with a 10p coin back in my youth, they were huge, about the size of an Olympic medal I think and don't even get me started on the 50p.
There was a phenomenon back then known as the penny sweet. You could actually get a penny sweet and it DID cost just 1p. The shopkeeper would watch as you made your selection, picking things up with your BARE hands (no scoops or anything!), before tipping the bag or small tray out and counting the sweets and handling them with HIS bare hands.
Many roads had a bright red, metal box situated on them. Like a small greenhouse, they got insanely hot in summer and as the doors weighed about a ton, small children were often caught inside and passed out.
These 'Phone Boxes' as they were called actually had a telephone inside. I recall the shock I felt when the newer phones were installed in the boxes and there was no 1p slot in them! The classic British phone box was also multi-functional as it they often doubled as a toilet, place to hang out in the rain and somewhere to keep the weird kids off the estate. We pushed them inside and tied it shut with rope. The phone box nearest to me had a peculiar scent to it which I could not identify for years until I grew up and understood it was the smell of old sex.
We had numerous outlets for entertainment back in the day too, the council estate I lived on had areas of grass which you were banned from playing ball games on although it was more than acceptable for all the dogs in the area to deposit their excrement all over the place. As we weren't allowed to play in the dog mess we would often gather at a play park on the edge of our civilisation.
Play parks today are generally safe places for parents to take their children for a good bit of fun and exercise. Not in my day, there was a standard slide in parks back then, it was about ten feet high and open at the top so there was a very real possibility you could fall off and crack open your skull like a ripe melon hit with a cricket bat. Especially as the floor was either concrete or the marginally softer tarmac. None of this rubbery stuff you get today - we woz tuff.
There was another form of entertainment we had, often next to the play park, which was the no longer seen phenomenon of the abandoned car. I often stood, transfixed in awe, as the older kids would jump repeatedly on the bonnet, windscreen and roof of a car which somebody had no further use for so dropped it in an area they knew kids would destroy it completely. Don't get the wrong idea - these weren't stolen cars, nor had they been used in the commission of a crime - dodgy blokes just dumped them. Everywhere. It was our duty as kids to play in and on them before someone burned them out. I clearly recall a group of older boys stuffing one poor soul inside a discarded Austin Maxi and making sure he couldn't get out while the leader crushed the roof down on his head. Logic now tells me the kid inside was in very little danger but my ten year old imagination had them killing him inside that babyshit brown car.
Babyshit brown is another feature we have lost since the 80's. Many automotive manufacturers decided this was an excellent choice of colour for the cars they created, presumably derived from the designer's child's nappy. Some cars came in a meconium green hue which has also died out.
So, as a beginning, how did I do?
